Month: June 2016

FINAL DAY TO PREORDER!

PREORDER international bestselling author Dan Alatorre’s amazing sci-fi thriller The Navigators today for just $0.99. The price increases on its release date July 1 to $2.99.Click HERE and order NOW!

You’ve been waiting for this!

My co-hosts Allison and Jenny hijack the show and turn the tables, interviewing ME in a funny, insightful session. And oh yeah, I have a new book releasing tomorrow! We probably talk about that a little.

Author Dan Alatorre discusses his new novel The Navigators, plus his style and techniques for making compelling stories with interesting characters.

An interesting and insightful interview full of tips on how to write better books.

PREORDER international bestselling author Dan Alatorre’s amazing sci-fi thriller The Navigators today for just $0.99. The price increases on its release date July 1 to $2.99.Click HERE and order NOW!

Rather than write an abridged version of each of your chapters, start with a basic framework and build outward. I try to write one sentence for each of these story beats.

PARAGRAPH 1: ACT 1

Who is the hero, what’s their lot in life, what’s their drive, and what makes them sympathetic?

What breaks their routine? What goal does that leave them with?

Who or what is in the way of their goal?

What’s the situation surrounding the events? What’s the setting, and the time period?

PARAGRAPH 2: ACT 2

What’s the hero’s point of no return?

What is the hero’s quest teaching them? How are they starting to change?

How do their alliances shift?

What’s the hero’s lowest moment? Have they learned their lesson? Do they get their goal only to realize they wanted something else all along?

PARAGRAPH 3: ACT 3

What’s at stake when the hero nears the climatic confrontation? How do they use their new knowledge to resolve it?

What’s the resolution? Does it set another story up?

Your story will have more to it than this, but you should focus on this barebones structure if you want to fit it all on one page. It’s possible to be accurate while omitting your favorite part. This is no place to include quotes, editorial commentary, or flowery description.

If you’re posting a synopsis on Amazon, treat it like a trailer. Give the audience enough information to make them curious about how it ends. You can make vague allusions to everything that happens beyond the midpoint. If you’re submitting your story to agents and publishers then you should include spoilers.

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PREORDER international bestselling author Dan Alatorre’s amazing sci-fi thriller The Navigators today for just $0.99. The price increases on its release date July 1 to $2.99.Click HERE and order NOW!

Every author, published or not, should have a media platform. That helps you share your brand and writing with the world. Video is just one more way, and more ways to be found is better.

Your humble host

For example, on the video show Writers Off Task With Friends we are trying to help authors get noticed, and right now ANY new author, published or not, can ask to be interviewed.

Why?

Because a large part of our audience appeal is to people who want to write a book. It makes sense to talk to talented people in the middle of that struggle.

Like you.

(But almost ALL bloggers and vloggers and video shows need content, and you can help provide them with that.)

2. Or, if you have a book out, come talk to us about it. We’ll be nice. Probably.

(BTW, Just about every one of these blue hyperlinks takes you to another lesson about that topic, so there’s a LOT to learn in this post.)

This is true again of everyone else. They need content, and you can provide it.

3. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. You want to be on that.

A short, snappy video of you talking about your work makes for easy marketing.

A video show about authors, FEATURING YOU, is an even easier way to do it.

But… but that requires talking to… PEOPLE!

No, no, no. Okay, yes, but not really. On our show, you’ll be talking to me – come on, we’re practically old friends – and Allison and Jenny. You know us. And we aren’t coming over to the house; you’ll be on your computer, in your happy place, all nice and safe. On other shows, the host will make you feel relaxed. All video, even a cell phone video, can load to YouTube and gets its own link.

Here are some good ways to use the video link in your author platform (that’s MARKETING, folks) to show fans and potential readers other sides of you than they may get from a written author bio:

Post the link to your show on your personal Facebook page. Talk it up like it’s a big deal (it kinda is) and your friends will watch it. Ask how they think you did. If they comment, ask them to share it on their page.

Doesn’t it look like she’s having fun?

If you have a Facebook author page (Why Do You Need A Facebook Author Page? Click HERE), post the link there as well. These are fans more than friends, and they may appreciate insights you share. Mention one or two highlights that may interest your base. Again, if they comment, THANK THEM for their kind words and see if they’ll share the post on their personal Facebook page. Many will. That’s additional exposure for you. You don’t have fans? Well, it starts with one. Have something there for them when they arrive.

Tweet the link with a comment and a popular hashtag. Think of several tweets that reflect the message you want to say and post them throughout the day, and once a day afterwards for a week. Not everybody’s on Twitterat the same time.

Reblog it, or link it to your blog. If you had fun, say so. (You will.) Blog readers will enjoy seeing additional sides of you as demonstrated via your conversations with Dan, Jenny and Allison. Be sure to reply to any comments your readers make, and if they are authors, encourage them to contact us to appear. Better yet, reach out to us on their behalf; that makes you a go-to for asset and builds your value to them.

It looks like SHE’s having fun, too! Gosh, maybe there’s something to this.

If you are on Amazon, you can post videos. Use your show link there so potential readers can see you different ways while shopping. The longer they spend on your Amazon author page, the more likely they are to buy. That’s a good thing.

ABSOLUTELY post the link on your Goodreadsauthor page. This is a unique way for readers to find you and learn about you.

If you use a mailing list, be sure to send it out as yet another way to stay in front of your audience.

If you don’t have a mailing list, email it to your friends.

You can trust this guy. Honest.

If you have a friend who does have a mailing list, ask them to send the show link out for you. They probably need excuses to send content out to their readers lest they become forgotten, and if they are your friend they’ll like helping out. Plus, it carries weight when somebody says, “Hey, check out my author friend on this video show they did!” (Introduce the friend with the list to us to be a guest in exchange for sending your link out.)

These are just a few ways to get you out there. The video will be tagged with your name and or your book title so it will become more searchable by more people – since YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.

Be sure to contact us when you have a new book release you want to promote, and tell your author friends how nice we are. Odds are they need promotion, too, even if you don’t think they do. Because we all do.

Yeah? So?

Betas!

Were you a beta reader? This will be your chance to publish your reviews. You can buy the book on preorder so you can enjoy it again and again on your Kindle (thank you) but you can post your honest review on July 1 with or without buying.

But wait, there’s more.

Dan’s Divas

Wanna be one of Dan’s Divas? Even if you’re a guy? (Maybe Dan’s Dudes for them, then. Didn’t really think that one through.)

A book proper launch is the way to help a new novel achieve and maintain its ranks among the top tiers of Amazon. YOU can help do that!

If you have a blog, write a post about the book

REBLOG this post and make a nice comment!

If you want to have me as an interview guest, let me now using the Contact Me button

Can you get the word out by posting this link on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Pinterest to your friends? All of that helps TONS.

and THEN what?

Well, if you can guide 10 of your friends to preorder The Navigators, I will personally sign a paperback copy of The Navigators and send it to you (when they become available in about 30 days). Simply email me each time a friend says they’re gonna preorder The Navigators and let me know who they are as they tell you yes. They’re your friends; just have them tell you they did it. I’ll be able to check from my end.

Also, ALL members of Dan’s Divas and Dudes will be entered in a free drawing to receive a signed copy of the paperback version of The Navigators, so if you don’t get ten friends to preorder, you’ll still have a chance to win a signed paperback. Betas, you are automatically entered.

Finally,

when you post a review on Amazon, you’ll have my eternal gratitude and be first in line to receive the beta version of my next book, Poggibonsi, an Italian misadventure, currently in its final edits before being beta ready, and said by my Navs editor (you know that’s Allison, right?) to be my funniest book yet. I think she’s right, too.

So, we have a LOT of work to do, gang, and not a lot of time to do it, but that’s what makes it EXCITING!!!

IIIIIIIIII’M SO EXCITED!!

I’ll have a LOT more fun stuff for you to do this week to get the ball rolling.

A good launch makes for great book stats, and we want to debut at NUMBER ONE and join the long list of bestsellers in the family. The Navigators is without a doubt my best book to date. (The betas loved it.) Your friends will agree.

And WHY do you want to do any of this?

Because if this blog gives you ANY benefit at all, 99 cents and a few kind words is a nice way to say thank you.

Also because you will need help on your launch, and we are ALL about that here.

Okay, I need to sit down and catch my breath.

Oh and I’ll have some kind of Rafflecopter thing soon. Have you done that? I don’t know how part works but I hear it’s great. If you know, drop me a line on what’s good to do.

THANK YOU!

Happy, happy me.

The Navigators is ready to be born unto the world. YOU played a big role in that! YOU helped choose the cover (and not just what color my name should be). YOU helped craft the tricky wording in the chapters (remember the t-shirt tying debacle?). YOU figured out what to say in the blurb (oh the blurbs. HOW MANY WERE THERE???

I’ve done a few book trailers – they all pretty much sucked (damn, you, Fiverr!) – but now that I do a video show and can edit my own videos, I may have to rethink the idea.

or to get the wisdom about videos and how to do them correctly from the insightful Lucy Brazier, author of Secret Diary Of PorterGirl, who has done quite a few good videos, click HERE

Video is king, right? Allegedly? I’m not so sure book trailers aren’t anything more than expensive vanity projects.

But...

I remember seeing an old black and white Alfred Hitchcock trailer for Psycho few years back, and I was genuinely intrigued by Hitch’s presence. He narrated the whole thing. It’s awesome seeing your movie director, or in this case it’d be the author of the book, telling you about certain key scenes or their favorite parts. And maybe I could get a few friends to say some nice words on camera, who knows? But apparently Hitchcock was unique in his delivery, because almost nobody had done a movie trailer this way before – or since.

If I do a book trailer for The Navigators, that’s what I’m gonna do.

At a little past the the 2:00 mark, when he talks about how the body fell and twisted – and can’t finish! I think that hooked me there (and probably a lot of other viewers). That’s awesome, to have thought of that. Kinda reminds me of me.

What do you think? Have you done a book trailer or seen one worthy of emulation? Post the link below!

(Have you noticed how often I mention Lucy’s book and post the link? See what happens when you do a guest blog?)